Top Tips for the Church Wedding

Today we’d like to continue our “Top tips” series with a little advice for those choosing to be married in a traditional church setting. We love a good church wedding and here’s a little advice to make sure you get the best out of your ceremony!

• If you’re having professional photographers and videographers present make sure you discuss the rules of filming and photos with your vicar at the time of confirming your booking. Many vicars will not allow photos or videos to be taken in their church or may allow it but only from certain positions or allow it only if you pay an additional fee. There’s no fixed rule on this whatsoever across churches so if it’s important to you to have this part of the day captured fully then make sure this has been agreed upon in advance to avoid disappointment later!
• Consider banning guests from taking photos and videos during the ceremony and leave it to the professionals. Often guests get so involved in taking pictures that they don’t fully connect with the ceremony by watching it with their own eyes, and with distracting flashes going off it can also spoil it for you too. The professionals are there for a reason – have faith in them to capture everything fully.
• Pick a seat, not a side. In recent years it’s become less popular having a “bride’s side” and “groom’s side” – nowadays most couples’s allow their guests to find a seat wherever they can, and for good reason. A wedding is a coming together of two families and keeping them completely separated seems to go against this idea. Having everyone together also means you avoid any awkward situations with one side being dramatically more full than the other!
• Consider having musicians at your ceremony. The church organ is a traditional part of the wedding but it can be lovely to have other musicians present as well who can entertain your guests as they arrive and during the signing of the register and even provide a more customised song choice for the entrance of the bride and the exitlude. If you have a friend who’s a great singer or musician this can be particularly special and memorable.
• Decide whether you want solely religious readings. Generally it’s important to have at least one reading from the bible at a church wedding but most vicars are also quite happy for you to include non-religious texts as well which are sometimes easier to relate to for non-religious members of the congregation.
• Brief the ushers on their responsibilities. It’s important to make sure that the groomsmen know what they need to do once they’re at the church. We’d ideally suggest having someone at the gate to let people know about parking and direct them towards the church, someone to greet the guests at the door and give out orders of service and someone guiding the guests to their seats leaving the groom and best man free to talk to the guests, discuss anything they need to with the vicar and make sure the groom is all ready for the ceremony to begin!
• Bring baskets of confetti for the bridesmaids / flower-girls to hand out as the guests exit the church. Most people don’t bring their own confetti to weddings any more and if there’s visible sign that confetti is supposed to be thrown (like the baskets) then often this is forgotten entirely. Also if you want to have a confetti shot with the church in the background check with the vicar whether it’s ok to throw confetti within the church grounds as many churches don’t allow this.

So we hope you’ve found these tips useful and we’ll be offering more top tips for different types of ceremony very soon!